The neurologist was caught masturbating in view of the hospital’s cancer center, according to state regulators.
Baystate Medical Center and Baystate Children’s Hospital in Springfield, part of the Baystate Health system. Lane Turner/Boston Globe Staff, File
March 12, 2026 | 5:04 PM
2 minutes to read
A Springfield neurologist was slapped with a five-year probation after fellow employees at Baystate Health saw him masturbating inside his office, according to recently unredacted records from the state’s medical board.
Dr. Robert A. Martin admitted to masturbating in his locked office, located across the street from Baystate Health’s D’Amour Center for Cancer Care, a signed 2024 consent order shows. Around 10 to 20 cancer center employees saw Martin in the act on Nov. 21, 2023, and reported him to hospital security and administrators.
The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine initially suspended Martin’s license over the incident, but stayed the suspension after he agreed to five years of probation and other conditions. According to the consent order, Martin reached out to the Physicians Health Services Program of the Massachusetts Medical Society and entered into a behavioral health monitoring contract in May 2024.
Martin “resumed his practice in the fall of 2024 and has practiced without incident or blemish ever since,” his lawyer, Paul Cirel, said in a statement.
According to the consent order, the late-afternoon incident occurred when Martin returned to his office after seeing six patients that day. Cirel said Martin was “unaware that he was — or that he could be — seen” through his office’s large windows.
“At the time of this incident, Dr. Martin was alone in his locked administrative office. He was standing behind his worktable, across the room from the window,” he said. “This was not an act of exhibitionism; it was simply a very unfortunate lapse in judgement.”
However, a cancer center employee who spoke with The Boston Globe said she saw Martin standing partly undressed in the center of his office, facing the windows with his penis in one hand and his cellphone in the other. The employee told the Globe she filmed the incident but said Baystate officials rebuffed her and refused to look.
She said she ultimately reported Martin’s actions to the state medical board.
“I questioned his ability to provide safe care … that there may have been an underlying sexual issue that could cause him to harm others,” the employee said, according to the Globe.
Reached for comment, Baystate Health said it does not comment on personnel matters but has “established systems and processes to govern compliance with any conditions and guidance issued by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine.”
Cirel noted Martin accepted responsibility and apologized for his conduct when Baystate Health launched an investigation and put him on administrative leave. The Board of Registration in Medicine likewise noted Martin — a 2017 graduate of the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine — was “fully cooperative.”
Still, the consent order found Martin had engaged in disruptive behavior and “lacked good moral character and engaged in conduct that undermines the public confidence in the integrity of the medical profession.”
The 2023 incident was first reported by the Globe, which also spurred state officials to release an unredacted version of the consent order this week. A spokesperson for the state medical board told the newspaper case details had been redacted erroneously.
Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.
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